Federal workers 'thrilled' to be back

Employees eager to return to normal after 16-day shutdown

9:55 PM,
Oct. 17, 2013

Visitors enter the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum after it opened Thursday in Washington. Federal memorials, National Park Service sites and the Smithsonian Institution's network of museums were up and running again with the partial government shutdown's end.

Written by

John Bacon, Yamiche Alcindor and Marisol Bello
| USA Today

From Yosemite to the Pentagon, thousands of federal workers returned to work Thursday, and many government functions restarted after 16 days of furloughs forced by the partial shutdown.

With resolution of the political impasse in Congress assured Wednesday night, Yosemite National Park in California reopened its gates before midnight and said its hotels, shops and other operations would be running Thursday. Other parks reopened Thursday morning around the country.